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Give Everyone Cycle Space (Cycling Scotland YouTube still)Cycling Scotland's new campaign says Give Everyone Cycle Space - but is it enough room? (+ video)
Cycling Scotland has launched its new road safety awareness campaign, Give Everyone Cycle Space – but some commenters on social media claim the room motorists are suggested to give people on bikes when overtaking them is not enough.
According to Cycling Scotland, the four-week Scottish Government-backed campaign, which is running on a variety of media including TV and on buses, bus shelters, phone boxes and online, is “primarily aimed at people in cars.”
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Some may find it curious, then, that during the 30-second spot, while plenty of cyclists appear – with parentheses around them positioned at arm’s length, indicating the room other road users should give them – there is only one motor vehicle shown, a VW Beetle.
The video has some similarities to one of those used in 2013’s much criticised Nice Way Code campaign from Cycling Scotland, also financed with the help of government money.
Again, that advert (initially subject to a ban by the Advertising Standards Authority, later overturned, since it showed a cyclist without a helmet) had a solitary driver giving a cyclist plenty of room when overtaking, without any other vehicles in sight, not even a parked car.
That’s far from the reality many bike riders have to contend with on a daily basis, and even when physically separated infrastructure is provided, this picture tweeted earlier this week of a new segregated cycle path in Edinburgh suggests there is a long way to go until some motorists in Scotland give cyclists any room at all.
New Buccleuch St segregated cycle lane being used as carpark already. 4cars+advertising van today at lunchtime 
pic.twitter.com/AXqSNXE9D6
— Donald R Noble (@donaldrnoble) May 19, 2015
While some people on social media – including John Lauder, director of Sustrans Scotland – have welcomed the latest campaign, others have criticised it saying the passing distance suggested is insufficient.
Rule 163 of the Highway Code says that motorists “should give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car.”
That’s accompanied by an illustration of a motorist overtaking a man on a bike and giving him far more space than the Cycling Scotland video suggests.
Here’s a selection of tweets both applauding and criticising the latest campaign.
@CyclingScotland those images sort of give the impression that you should only give an arms length...
— Ricky (@Rickshaw85) May 20, 2015
New campaign by @CyclingScotland launched today. I think it's really good http://t.co/S3CDwXMelG #giveeveryonecyclespace #sustrans
— John Lauder (@John_Lauder) May 18, 2015
@magnatom @CyclingScotland @jimewing And an artic thundering by one arm's length away is still WAY too close. 6ft minimum space, please!
— Three From Leith (@threefromleith) May 21, 2015
.@CyclingScotland Nice video! Where can we get a set of those brackets and how much do they cost? https://t.co/5ltLt0Oa4U
— UofG Sustainability (@UofGsustain) May 21, 2015
This is so flipping good! I Love this ad! RT @CyclingScotland #giveeveryonecyclespace #asmuchspaceasacar https://t.co/u1yQblpsgM
— Axel F (@axfou) May 21, 2015
Helping launch the campaign, Derek Mackay, the Scottish Government’s minister for transport and islands, said: “Last year we invested record levels of almost £40 million on cycling projects.
“As I said recently, I am determined to increase this spend on cycling this year not just on infrastructure but also by actively promoting cycling as a positive transport option with health and environmental benefits for all.
“People on bikes have as much right to be on the road as other transport users and we should all respect that. We need to be vigilant of vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians, young and old, and if we can share the roads in a manner which takes account of this then we will be creating a safer and healthier Scotland.
“That is why I am delighted to support the launch of this new campaign for cycle space on the roads and would urge everyone to heed its messages.”
Keith Irving, Cycling Scotland’s chief executive, added: “Cycling is becoming an everyday activity for people in many places across Scotland but one of the key barriers to more people cycling is concern about traffic and road behaviour.
“Cycling Scotland’s Give Everyone Cycle Space campaign reminds people to drive and overtake safely around people riding bikes, especially children.”
He concluded: “Whether it’s a person on a bike making the journey to school, to work, to the shops or just for fun, we should all give everyone cycle space.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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29 comments
The problem is that many motorists (too many motorists) think that a bike is only this wide and so they can just ease past without having to *really* overtake (like, maybe crossing the centre line). This is a serious problem but I'm really not sure how this video will educate them...
Ah, good old Cycling Scotland. Relentless campaigners for cycling as a safe, normal, everyday activity:
http://www.bikeabilityscotland.org/
Jesus, some folk are never happy.
Never are on here - people supposed to be working venting instead is my guess
http://thinkingaboutcycling.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/give-cyclists-sp...
This is what the signs say in France, but then again what do the French know about cycling
This is how they do it in Mallorca.
Capture_19.JPG
Err no. If your close enough to clip my hand when I'm signalling for a right turn, you're to close!
thanks for the link !
Why on earth do people keep using publicity campaigns to promote cycling, and why on earth do cycling organisations keep endorsing them. The evidence (e.g this scientific review of 25 cycling promotion programmes: http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5293.short) finds they make no statistically significant difference! In other words, it is impossible to say they make any difference compared to doing nothing at all.
The only thing such campaigns do is allow governments to claim they are doing something to promote cycling, whilst not actually doing anything structural like creating segregated paths. It is as if the Netherlands achieved such high cycling rates purely as a result of publicity campaigns.
Them linking to this would have been better.
http://www.motoring.co.uk/car-news/cyclists-why-do-they-ride-in-the-midd...
I really wonder about Cycling Scotland, why do they persist in coming up with such rubbish? Why can't they just look across the North Sea and see what works and learn from that? This sort of nonsense has been tried for over 50 years now and it has never worked, so why are they wasting public money on it?
What we really need is decent infrastructure and Presumed Liability.
Agreed, but that would negatively effect the experience of the all-important motorists, and we really can't have that now, can we?!
I got a letter from the police last week saying they were taking no further action against the taxi driver who hit me from behind and hospitalised me for two weeks. They said they considered the cause of the incident to be cyclist error...
There is a cycle lane, less than 1m wide, with large gated drain covers in, if the taxi was overtaking with appropriate space, how on earth is it due to cyclist error?
Maybe the problem is that many overtaking cars do give cyclists the same space as they would if overtaking a car... it's just that they overtake a car way too close too, obviously the consequences are generally less severe.
If a cyclist is in a bike lane and a car is overtaking, how much room should the car give when overtaking? Is the answer none, because you are in different lanes?
I think that's exactly what goes through some people's heads. They honestly think that because a cycle lane is eighteen inches wide that some town planner has said that that's all the space a cyclist needs.
adding to the great comments above......
see the usual political crap of
"we spent XX millions on cycling last year"
"we'll spend XX millions on cycling next year"
where the f*** is the XX millions - cos all i see are painted white lines "thinning" the existing road so the cars take no notice (and park in them anyway) and "shared use paths" that are just not fit for purpose because they either cross so many roads your never riding your bike more than 30 seconds before giving way, they stop as soon as they start, or lead nowhere, or they are full of obstructions and a bumpy potholed mess....just like the tarmac roads anyway.
were a effin jole this country.
I think the point they need to put across is that a bicycle is a vehicle and as such should be shown the same amount of consideration as a car, van motorbike or any other four etc wheeled vehicle
They should show a bicycle on the road being overtaken by a car... with another car coming the other way and showing a car transparent over the bike with the quote "you would not overtake the car .. give bicycle more room"
The advert is at least correct, in that the voiceover accurately reflects the provisions of the Highway Code.
I suspect that these campaigns are no fucking use whatever. It's difficult to measure, so it's possible that the Think Bike! campaign had an effect. My personal impression, however, is that it is negligible, and that those people who drive inconsiderately and/or dangerously carried on doing so.
The only sure way to get people to respect the rules is to force them to do so - by physically separated infrastructure and law enforcement. Nothing else will work.
Forget law enforcement won;t be enough police to do it !
As fr separated infrastructure, definitely in city centres but I personally would never use it but certainly can understand why thousands would.
It is about behavioural changes and clearly more room would be good but it is a start. You can not change people's attitudes with one advert it is about everything in the round.
How on earth is this a **good** start? It's worse than no advert. Would an advert saying you shouldn't speed, you should only drive 50mph in cites be a good ad too?
Yes, how? In my neck of the woods, getting away with a bare minimum improvement in exposition (over Nice Way Code I suppose) when a bunch of primary school kids could come up with something better is called "trying to pull a fast one". Heaven knows what their agenda is, though.
I seriously doubt the effectiveness of these behavioural change campaigns. After all, the sorts of people who drive too close to cyclists are hardly likely to watch the video.
It sets a nice tone though, presenting riding a bike (in ordinary clothes) as a normal activity
A good advert, just a shame that the key message on space doesn't give enough of it.
I do wonder sometimes why ad agencies etc don't just seek some feedback from forums like this before making the ad mainstream.
How on earth is an advert good that tells drivers that 1.5 to 2 feet is an acceptable passing distance - 5 feet is a good passing distance, 3 foot is ok if the car is doing under 30mph.
Not 1.5 feet - that is within touching distance, when is the last time a vehicle passed within touching distance and you thought it was a good pass?
Very bad ad.
As I said, there's not enough space given
I see nothing wrong with that advert at all. A positive message about commuters mainly (note no lycra) and note not everyone is wearing an helmet. A sensible mature advert.
Are you joking, has everyone lost their minds? 1 to 2 feet is not enough space, cars should be leaving 5 feet at 30mph.
The video suggests that drivers drive past with their vehicles within touching distance of the cyclist, no room for a cyclist to cycle round a pot-hole, no 'wiggle room'. Dangerous.
unf**king believable.
This could cost someone their life.
On the plus, it's nice to see a Government funded commercial that didn't insist that everyone by wrapped in hi-viz.
On the negative side, there's not a whole lot of car overtaking going on in that ad. In fact it looks like it's targeting cyclists overtaking cyclists. Do cyclists overtake other cyclists especially badly in Scotland, or is this a load of old cobblers.
Seconded. There is one car overtaking shown. Just lots of cyclists overtaking other cyclists. I don't understand how this is supposed to educate motorists about passing distances. It might have been better to show a squeaky clean bus or a gleaming white van pass the cyclists whilst staying outside their (admittedly too small, IMO) parentheses.